


The Force Within

by Snapdragonesters



Category: Ookiku Furikabutte | Big Windup!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Star Wars Setting, Anxiety Attacks, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pilot Tajima, Space Flight, Storm Trooper Mihashi, There may be some one-sided Abemiha, but Tajimiha is endgame, serious anxiety, some characters will be force users, what a surprise I know
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-07-17
Updated: 2016-07-17
Packaged: 2018-07-24 12:19:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7508068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Snapdragonesters/pseuds/Snapdragonesters
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>RN-0521 is a Storm Trooper fighting to survive. But when the First Order captures a resistance pilot, something changes. RN must make a choice- to move forward, or to remain with the only way of life he knows.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Force Within

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off the beginning of the newest Star Wars, and will diverge eventually. Idk I guess I just like pain but Storm Trooper Mihashi called to me. It starts out kind of dark but I promise it will improve!! Anxiety is depicted in this fic- I personally don't suffer from serious anxiety, so if something seems wrong to you please let me know!!!!!!!! I'm more than happy to learn and change things to be more accurate. There is also vomiting mentioned later in the first chapter, so beware if that bothers you. Anyway, thanks for reading!!

RN- 0521 is smaller than the rest of his unit. He understands that he is defective in more ways than just this. He has known since the Captain corrected him, struck him across the face at the age of six when she saw the weakness in his eyes. It ran down his face and left salty tracks, and she told him “Never again.” He took this to heart, but RN- 0521 was weak.

Many years had passed since that early training and indoctrination into the First Order. The temperament of RN- 0521 had not changed much. He sat with his unit in a vibrating drop vehicle, descending onto another god-forsaken dusty planet. His hands shook and RN- 0521 clutched his blaster tighter. Sitting next to him, his squadron leader noticed anyway.

“You never can seem to get your hands steady, can you Zero? Damned useless.” The male clucked his tongue in mock sympathy. RN- 0521 lowered his head and didn’t speak. Time had taught him that it only made things worse.

“I’m a little surprised they haven’t decommissioned you already, but I guess there’s no use wasting manpower. Cannon fodder or elite soldier, the First Order utilizes everyone to the fullest extent.” HT- 5973 clapped him roughly on the back, well inside RN- 0521’s personal space. His cheerful words were a twisted version of the common rhetoric of the First Order, blared through speakers and the mouths of their superiors.

The drop ship jolted as it entered the atmosphere and descended rapidly. RN- 0521’s stomach clenched, heavy and tense like it was filled with lead. His blaster felt like it weighed about a thousand pounds- a lifeline, a burden. The doors opened and hot acrid air flooded in, burning his throat and nose. Fumes from the spacecraft coiled in the air around him, filling his lungs. 

There was already blaster fire coming from those leaving the ship first. The inhabitants of this dusty planet were ready for them, waiting in the dark to defend their home. Forms in white armor fell in front of him, some writhing and some still. RN- 0521 fought the urge to vomit as he stepped over one. It looked big enough to be the new guy in their unit, tall and solidly built. They had once traded food, RN thought dazedly. For some unfathomable reason the new guy had preferred peas to mashed potatoes. He had even smiled at him when RN agreed.

Now RN- 0521 left him behind, blood pooling dark in the red dust of the planet. Only long years of training kept his feet moving forward. That and the brutal understanding that, no matter what hell lay ahead of him, what lay behind was worse if he failed.

A robed figure appeared ahead and to his left, rising like a death-dealing apparition from behind a stack of scrap metal. RN- 0521 gritted his teeth. His hand clenched on his blaster and he squeezed the trigger, feeling vaguely relieved when it missed. The figure raised its own gun and fired into the gut of the trooper running adjacent to him. RN felt it. It burned through him, destroying flesh and bone, punching a hole through his stomach. He gasped, though he was already breathing too hard. The thick air seemed devoid of oxygen. His mask was stifling, hot and restrictive to his vision.

A flash of red and green lit up the dark to his right. He turned as much as the mask allowed. Storm Troopers to his left and right hesitated, gravitating towards this new threat with their blasters raised.

A man, small and slender for a human, stood next to a burning shack with blasters in both hands. He was dressed in rugged pilot’s gear, a helmet dropped uselessly by his feet. His short dark hair stuck up from his head. RN- 0521’s feet slowed and shuffled to a stop. The man took out three running targets, his face eerily calm in its intensity. His hands were steady. He seemed nimble despite his jacket and gear, sprinting forwards towards cover the moment the last shot left his blaster. Shots sparked against the structures behind him as he slid behind a broken-down hover vehicle.

A hand grabbed RN- 0521 by the shoulder and dragged at him, pulling him off balance and down into the sand. He scrabbled to get his feet under him as a familiar voice hissed,

“Keep moving or get down! Hell, you’ll die if you just stand there.” The voice belonged to the only trooper patient enough to stand RN’s presence, SH- 0814. In the privacy of his own mind RN thought the ID looked a bit like Shuu, and the other male had seemed amused when RN told him so. Years of training together bred tolerance, RN supposed.

RN nodded. Something made him lift his head just enough to see over the rise in the dust, despite his heart pounding in his throat. The man, the pilot, was taking quick shots around the hover vehicle. Nearly every shot hit a Storm Trooper. He had an uncanny awareness of his surroundings, finding and eliminating the closest or most dangerous Trooper as they tried to outmaneuver him. Shuu rested a hand against RN’s arm and pointed. 

“Let’s go around, we can try to get behind him.” We can try to _die_ , RN thought, but he said nothing. Shuu was a good person and RN had no choice. He would go with him. 

“On my mark.” Fear knotted itself in RN- 0521’s stomach as Shuu crouched, watching intently. A particularly dense round of fire began and Shuu nodded and stood to run. Blaster shots ripped the air around them, but none seemed to be aimed at them. The pilot was pinned down by the consistent fire. RN sprinted after Shuu, skidding after him behind the cover of a low dilapidated structure. The interior was nearly empty; it was just four walls, a low roof and windows empty of glass. They were off to the side of the pilot, one wall of the structure between them. RN crouched to catch his breath.

A massive explosion nearly made him jump out of his skin. RN- 0521 looked to Shuu, and the other man started to say something, but a heavy shape hurtled through the window and into Shuu.

The blaster flew out of the Trooper’s hands and hit the wall. A roar, pure adrenaline-fueled distress, filled RN’s ears as the dark humanoid shape- the pilot- jumped to his feet to stand above Shuu. Weaponless, the Trooper lifted his hands as the pilot raised his blaster. Then RN was shouting, hurling himself through the space to land half on Shuu. A wordless cry unable to convey all the things he wanted to say; no, please, don’t hurt him. He spread his arms and knelt in front of the pilot, between him and his target.

The pilot hesitated for the first time that night. He lowered his weapon and shook his head, frown crinkling the space between his eyebrows. Blaster fire caught his attention and he turned without a second glance, running out the back of the tiny building where they had entered. RN barely heard the sounds of fighting continuing outside. He could hardly distinguish the flurry of emotions or the words Shuu was shouting at him as he shook RN by the shoulders. He gestured and RN looked down and realized that he still clutched his own blaster in his hands.

 

The fighting had migrated away towards the ships when they exited the small building. Storm Troopers ran here and there, corralling the inhabitants of the planet and paying them no mind. Shuu was still angry, stiff and upset when he walked. RN- 0521 was numb. When he was alone the memories and shaking would come, but for now they were shoved aside and the rest was blank.

From a distance RN- 0521 saw the pilot, standing still as stone in the middle of a circle of troopers. A man in a mask and a black cloak stood across from him, hand extended. The Sith Apprentice, RN recognized. His body automatically balked at the sight of the man who could pry a person’s mind open like a clamshell. Shuu nudged him, but RN remained still as the pilot exchanged words with the figure in black. He was struck across the face and dragged inside a transport waiting to take him back to the main ship. RN- 0521 watched him disappear and at last turned to follow Shuu to the drop ship for orders.

~~~

RN- 0521 lay in bed and thought about the pilot from the dusty planet. It was better than thinking about other, darker matters. And much better than sleep. RN had never understood why none of the other Troopers woke with a jolt, soaked in sweat and too terrified to move. When he was younger RN had believed that if he moved the Thing he dreamed of would see him and it would come for him with bright death in his hands. That was the recurring one. His other dreams were hardly better, dark and full of pain and suffering and places he had never seen or heard of.

So instead RN thought of the pilot. He had moved with such confidence, surety. Even given what he had done to the troopers, RN couldn't bring himself to dislike him. He was just defending himself. RN shuddered, trying and failing not to think about what the pilot was enduring at the hands of the Sith apprentice. RN- 0521 had been in his presence only twice, and the first time he had very nearly passed out. The Sith had a black, oppressive feeling to them and the rumors said they could drive men mad with a glance.

RN's stomach was knotted in worry, and he kept his mind active, but it had been nearly three days since he properly slept. His body gave in to the need for rest and he drifted off. 

When he dreamed, as he inevitably did, RN- 0521 was in the depths of the ship. It wasn't as far away as his dreams normally took him. He was strapped uncomfortably to a chair, but for the first time he was not afraid.

Well, that wasn't strictly true. He was frightened, but the fear was caged in a corner of his mind. An iron will bound it there. He understood that there were more important things at stake than him, and it somehow brought him peace.

Metal clanked behind him and a door opened to briefly admit the sounds of the hallway beyond. It closed and a man all in black, the Sith apprentice, stalked into view. RN felt the expected surge of fear, the clench of his muscles, but it was buried under determined resignation. He would die here, and this arrogant bastard in a mask would get nothing from him. Not the plans, not the location of the Resistance strongholds, not-

An ice pick slammed into his brain. RN-but-not-RN cried out, jerking his head back. It hit the padded back of the chair with a thud, but the feeling remained. It was like a jack had been jammed into his brain and was slowly, inexorably prying it open. In front of him, through the black spots in his vision, the Sith apprentice had his hand extended. Someone's advice from long ago came back to RN, a familiar voice that he had never heard. His mind was floundering under the assault, so RN grabbed the steely determination that he never had and shoved it to the front of his mind. The pain dimmed a little. It wasn't right, this man had a kindness about him, a strength and it just wasn’t _fair_ -

RN- 0521 sat bolt upright in bed. His head pounded. He scrambled out of bed, shaking and clumsy enough that he caught his leg on the blanket and toppled over to the floor. The pilot, he had to get to the _pilot._

He yanked on his clothes and armor, grateful for the blessed anonymity provided by the white shell. His boots clanked on the metal floor, too loud as he left the dark barracks. His breath came fast as he made his way through the lower levels of the ship. He neared the holding cells and stopped dead. The air felt heavy. RN- 0521 took a position at the end of the hallway to wait. He needed the Sith apprentice to leave before he could get anywhere near the cells.

It took perhaps 20 minutes for RN to feel it might be safe. He was preparing to leave when he heard footsteps, heavy black boots on the floor of the ship, and RN very nearly panicked. The feeling of foreboding was almost crippling. The Sith was going to walk by him and read his mind, and he would be executed, and the pilot-

The pilot would die. That would happen anyway, unless RN did something. 

RN bit his lip and focused on his breathing. In, count to five. Out, count to six. Don't rush. RN made his choice. He was here, and he was going to try. Inaction brought him nothing but nightmares, and anything was better than staying here and burdening Shuu and his unit. And nothing he could do would hurt the lively pilot more than what he was already enduring.

As RN talked himself down, the heavy feeling gradually faded. Twenty minutes after the air lightened RN stood still against the wall, waiting for his hands to stop shaking. He looked around at the empty hallways. No one was in sight.

 

RN- 0521 stopped formally in front of the two Troopers guarding the door.

"RN- 0521 reporting for p-prisoner transport. C-C-Captain's orders." His voice felt rusty and small.

One of the Troopers burst into laughter.

"Zero? I thought you hadn't talked in years. Force, the Captain must have scared the shit out of you."

His partner tilted his head and RN could feel his scrutiny through the mask.

"Transport to where?"

RN clenched his fist and fought the tremble in his voice. "The m-medical bay. For clean-up." 

The first trooper, who knew RN, shook his head. "Let Zero go change the prisoner's diaper. I don't want the Captain on my ass, she'll kick it all the way to the next star system."

The second shrugged and typed a code on the wall sensor. The door swung open and RN stepped in, heart pounding. The reality of what he was doing hit him in the gut. He had given them his name because he had to, it was procedure. His only hope of getting away was in the middle of the room sitting in restraints, head down and eyes closed.

His only hope of escape probably expected RN to try to kill him.

He couldn't keep from glancing at the pilot as he picked up the cuffs. Freckles like sand dusted his cheeks and nose, masked by the purple bruise on one cheek. Drying blood from his nose ran over his mouth and down his chin. RN prayed that he would be conscious and able to fly something, anything they could get away in. This impulsive plan felt like it was on the brink of spiraling out of control- but, impulsive or not, RN had made his choice.

RN cuffed the pilot’s hands in front of him, unlocking them from the chair one at a time. The cuffs were digital, they unlocked to a code programmed before they were closed. RN chose all fives, so he wouldn't forget.

RN looked up and jumped. Brown eyes were trained on his mask. The pilot's gaze was as intense as it had been on the dusty planet. The freckles and long eyelashes suggested that whatever planet he came from must have been sunny. RN swallowed.

"Come with me." He unstrapped the pilot's legs and he stumbled to his feet. The man looked like he was thinking about resisting, so RN tapped the blaster at his side.

He heard snickering from the door, where the other Troopers were standing.

"Move." Short words were easier for RN, they made it difficult to hear the shaking in his voice. The pilot wrinkled his nose.

"Yeah yeah, I'm moving." He staggered towards the door and RN followed, steering him right when they reached the corner. The pilot gave him a curious look over his shoulder. Maybe he noticed RN's shaking hands, or maybe he was just used to stronger Troopers.

RN brought him to a storage room a floor below the main hangar and stopped, closing the door. There was no one nearby. He moved in front of the pilot and put his blaster on the floor out of reach of them both.

"S-sorry... Had to get you out... Your restraints? Can I see?"

The pilot's expression shifted to nonplussed, but he offered his hands.

“Why do you want to undo my restraints? What are you doing, helping me escape? I’ve never heard of that happening with a Storm Trooper before.”

RN- 0521 shrugged helplessly. He hoped the pilot wouldn’t shoot him as soon as the restraints were off. “I… want out… s-so I thought. With you.” Words often betrayed RN, especially when he most needed to be understood. He opened his mouth to try again, but the pilot spoke with eyebrows raised.

“You want out? Out of the First Order? Damn, if you’re serious… take off your helmet? I’d feel better if I could see your face.” RN typed in the code for the cuffs and they snapped off. The pilot’s hand twitched towards the blaster, but he stilled and waited. RN unhooked his helmet and lifted it off, feeling like he was about to be weighed and found wanting. He met the pilot’s eyes for a moment. They scanned his face intently and RN felt himself wilting.

A bright smile surprised him. “Right, I believe you. Man, you Storm Troopers are totally different than I thought you were. You know, like heartless brainwashed clones for the First Order. No offense.” RN was at a loss about how to respond to that, so he just nodded.  
Footsteps approached in the hallway outside and RN held his breath. The pilot picked up his blaster and flicked the safety off, but the footsteps continued past the store room and faded away. RN breathed again and the pilot offered him his own blaster. The pilot’s eyebrows pulled together.

“So we need to get to a ship. Damn, can we escape in a Tai Fighter? Those things are super cool and I’ve never flown one. Do you have a disguise for me?” The pilot looked hopeful, but RN shook his head with a wince. He hadn’t thought that far ahead.

“Right. Then we need at least a scarf or something, so I look like anyone from Jakku- you know, the planet where they caught me- and we’ll just have to be quick. You got anything like that?” 

RN looked down and shook his head. He was impossibly unprepared for this. They would never make it out of the base, they would be-

“Okay, then just give me your shirt. You are wearing a shirt under there, yeah? No one will be able to tell and I’ll have something to cover my face.”

RN was startled enough to look up and meet the pilot’s eyes. “S-shirt? My…” RN’s eyes darted from side to side. He was sweaty under the armor, and he probably stank, and now this pilot wanted to put RN’s shirt over his face. He interrupted himself in the middle of shaking his head and spoke softly, ashamed. “But… sweaty…”

The pilot looked thoroughly unimpressed. “I don’t give a flying fuck, I want to get out of here alive. You could smell like a two ton hutt and I wouldn’t say a word. Now come on, they’re going to start looking for us any minute. Strip.” 

At a loss, RN wiggled his way out of his torso armor. He tugged his shirt over his head and handed it to the pilot before hurriedly pulling his armor back on, uncomfortable though it was without an extra layer of protection. The pilot lost no time wrapping the shirt around his head to cover his mouth and nose. Just his eyes hovered above the hem. He took care to tuck the sleeves up into the fabric so they were not obvious. He looked like one of the many locals of a sandy or dusty planet, and he gave RN a pleased nod. The corners of his eyes crinkled like he was smiling.

“Right, let’s go. We’ve got this.” He tossed the blaster at RN, who caught it with a faint yelp. He sent the pilot a reproachful look, which made him laugh. RN pointed the blaster at the pilot’s back and put a hand on his shoulder. The pilot let RN walk him out the door and up a flight of stairs to the main hangar. He appeared calm, but something about him was nearly vibrating with pent-up energy. He was on high alert as they pushed through the bay doors into a massive landing space bustling with activity. Troopers were everywhere, docking transport ships and unloading crates. RN’s eyes skated over the Troopers around them, desperately trying to avoid their notice.

They made it halfway across the hangar before it went wrong.

“Trooper. Where are you taking this man?” Boots slammed against the floor as a male from another unit stopped in front of them. The pilot began to cough, his hand coming up to cover more of his face. RN unlocked his jaw to force words out.

“Unloading b-bay… they want… umm, they want stats. On materials, from the planet.” The lie sounded shaky and untrue to his own ears. The trooper crossed his arms.

“Do you have any idea what you’re doing? You’d better give me the ID of the commander who issued such moronic orders. Or are you just trying to be clever, and get a promotion? I swear if that’s what you’re up to-“

“No!” No matter what was waiting for him, RN was not going back. He wouldn’t, he would rather die trying to get out. “This is sanctioned.” His voice hardly shook when he spoke. A lie was the only way he could get out now, so he would be damned if he didn’t try to sell it.

The trooper looked at them dubiously for a tense moment, then shrugged dismissively. RN’s knees nearly buckled from the relief.

“Well, whatever. It’s fine, if this is sanctioned.” He strode off towards a freighter that was still being unloaded.

The pilot whistled low and muffled under the cover of the shirt. “Damn, I thought we were dead there for a second. Nice job, you were quick on your feet. Now put me in something that can fly!” RN steered the pilot towards the Tai Fighters. They skirted a group of Troopers, which earned them a few looks. The blank masks of the Troopers had a hostile air. RN clenched his fists and nodded to the small craft ahead of them.

“We’ll go around back... less visible?” The pilot leaned down to heft a box of supplies in his arms from a pile.

“Yup. We gotta throw them off somehow. You just keep pointing that blaster, and be ready to move fast.” The pilot walked at a normal speed, just another prisoner put to work for the Order. They had very nearly made it to the Tai Fighter when the metallic alarm began to blare.

“Shit. Quick, before they know what they’re looking for.” The pilot dropped the box unceremoniously and his strong hand clamped onto RN’s arm to pull him behind the wing of the fighter. He wriggled out of the loose handcuffs and yanked on the wheeled ladder next to the fighter, pulling it towards the hatch.

“Can I get a hand here, Trooper?” RN’s feet stuttered indecisively as he hurried towards the back of the spacecraft. The alarms hurt his ears and made it difficult to think. His voice was audible over the blaring, though not by much.

“Attachments!! Have to undock-” The pilot cut him off with a nod and a wave.

“Okay, go! I’ve got this. But I’m not leaving without you, so MOVE!” RN lost sight of the pilot as the man put his shoulder against the rolling ladder and began to shove. RN sprinted around to the docking hook and fumbled at the latch. It was rusty and his hands were unsteady as he pulled the catch back. It slipped from his glove just before he could get it wide enough to come off the cleat of the Tai Fighter. He bit his lip hard and redoubled his effort.

Even through his gloves RN’s fingers ached as the heavy hook slid off the cleat. RN dropped it to the floor with a clatter and scurried around the fighter. His foot was on the first rung when he was grabbed from behind. His relief from undocking the fighter evaporated as panic brought spots to his vision.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing, Trooper? You’ll get decommissioned for this, mark my words.” A gruff voice snarled at him as someone yanked on his arm. From the other side, another set of hands wrapped around his second arm. RN’s heart sank. He hoped the pilot would go now before they were able to stop him. He struggled, and someone struck him from the side hard enough to knock his helmet off. He looked urgently at the cockpit of the Tai Fighter and motioned with this head towards the slowly-closing doors of the space station. Go! Go now! 

Instead the pilot threw himself half out of the open hatch and shot the man. RN yelped as the Trooper slumped against him with a grunt. When did he get the blaster? RN’s blaster was in the pilot’s hand, wielded with deadly accuracy so unlike its prior use.

A tug on RN’s captive arm brought him back to reality. RN turned, riding a wave of adrenaline, and slammed his free elbow into the trooper’s helmet. A prickling shock ran down his arm from elbow to fingertips, but the man reeled back and let go. Under cover of the pilot’s blaster fire, RN scurried up the ladder and threw himself at the hatch. The pilot disappeared to avoid getting hit and RN tumbled down on top of him.

“Geez, be careful!! Blasters are dangerous, and I didn’t help you just to accidentally shoot you when you fall on me.” The Fighter’s alert system began beeping as blaster fire ricocheted off the fighter’s wings and frame. The pilot swore. 

“Shit. Man the gun, now! I’m getting us out of here.” The pilot pushed RN off him, surprisingly muscular for his small frame, and jumped into the pilot seat. The Tai Fighter’s shields were already engaged and being put to the test by several groups of Troopers advancing on them. The pilot hesitated for a fraction of a second before he started flicking switches. The telltale hum of the engine intensified and RN stumbled to his knees as the fighter jolted. The movement became smoother as RN scooted around the seat at the bottom of the fighter, where the spacecraft’s guns were stored.

The guns were standardized as the Order preferred; made for easy operation, so anyone could kill. RN hit the green button with the circle symbol and grabbed the stick. Pull left, the gun pivoted right. RN aimed a haphazard spray of fire at the deck of the hangar.

The fighter pivoted and rose, accelerating hard in the direction of the closing bay doors. RN’s stomach sank as he realized they weren’t going to make it. It had taken him too long to get in the fighter, and he and the pilot would be trapped inside the station. The pilot must have had similar thoughts.

“Aim at the controls for the door!” The fighter was moving towards the diminishing crack quickly, too quickly. They would either get out or crash. RN aimed to the right of the hangar doors, but his hand jerked abruptly away before he really processed what he was seeing. The doors stopped moving. Several troopers were scuffling around by the doors, apparently in disarray. One had a hand on the large metal panel controlling the door, which remained frozen in place. RN tensed as an unsummoned name floated across his mind.

_Shuu?_

Two Storm Troopers stood nearby, looking at the slight Trooper. The second of the two raised a hand and pointed at the man, shouting. He reached for his blaster and drew it out of his belt.

RN shot him.

The second Storm Trooper turned to run away from the door, towards a larger group of First Order troopers whose blasters were aimed at the Tai Fighter as RN and the pilot whizzed past. RN’s hand clenched on the trigger and the Trooper fell to the deck. He and the man at the door controls were blocked from sight as the Tai Fighter shot out the hangar doors and left the First Order space station’s artificial gravity field. The small spacecraft blew past the speed of sound and the pilot let out an exhilarated yell.

RN’s stomach flipped in the worst way and he looked around desperately for something to vomit in. A small trash bag tucked under the seat was a relief. As he finished retching he heard the pilot’s concerned voice.

“Hey man, you okay? Is there something I can do?”

RN stammered out something, some sort of attempt to confirm that he was okay. The pilot didn’t seem to buy it.

“All right, you’re ok. We’re out. What’s your name? Damn, you just saved my life and I don’t even know what to call you.” The pilot’s voice was conversational and soothing. RN frowned in confusion at his question.

“My name? Do you mean… ID? My ID is RN-0521.” The pilot looked over and RN briefly caught a glimpse of raised eyebrows. 

“So you don’t have a name? Your ID sounds like Ren though. And what you shouted earlier sounded a lot like a name- Shuu?” 

“Oh!” So he had said it out loud. RN bit his lip. “Shuu… SH-0814. He’s a good person.”

“Huh, he’s your friend? I’m sorry you had to leave him. Does he call you Ren?”

“No… You? Do you, want to?” 

“Only if you like it!” The pilot sounded pleasantly surprised, and the name- Ren- sounded nice around the smile in his voice. 

RN- Ren- nodded. “Yeah… I like it.”

The pilot grinned. “Good. My name- oh, shit. Ren, can you do something for me?”

“I… can try?” The trooper- Ren- responded. The ship’s inertia abruptly changed as the pilot changed direction. 

“I need you to take out some of those homing missiles from the First Order station.” The pilot’s voice remained calm and even. Ren looked out in shock. Several specks of light against the black gave away the position of rocket powered missiles shooting towards them. Ren’s knuckles went white on the gun. He scrabbled for the trigger and tried to focus on the little crosshairs in the center of the screen. The pilot switched direction again and happy chance brought one of the missiles across the center of the screen. Ren pulled the trigger and one of the shots met the missile. There was a silent explosion and the pilot whistled his appreciation.

Ren tuned out everything but the missiles. They carved a path through the black of space, advancing on their prey. Ren sought the next one out, breathed, and pulled the trigger. On to the next. Breathe, fire. Next.

The incredulous voice of the pilot broke his concentration as the last ball of fire imploded from lack of oxygen.

“Force, I know I asked you to, but I didn’t expect you to get _all_ of them! That’s damn good, Ren.”

“T-thank you…” The ex-trooper felt his cheeks heat up. “I… still don’t know? Your name.” 

“Ah, shit.” The pilot nodded. “I’m Tajima Yuuichirou. You can call me Yuu if you want.”

Ren’s brows furrowed in confusion. “Why two? How come… you have two?” he asked with obvious confusion, because the pilot laughed.

“Two names? One is a personal name- Yuuichirou- and one is my family name. Everyone in my family is named Tajima. You can pick a second name too, if you feel like it. Though- sorry, but I guess you don’t really have a family? Seems like that sort of thing would be frowned upon in the First Order.”

Ren thought about his unit and time in the first order and shivered. “Yeah… no family. We were told… creates weakness. Can I have yours?”

The pilot laughed, which left Ren nonplussed. Was it a rude question?

“Family name you mean? You can, if you want, but maybe you should pick one of your own first? It might help you start over, or something.”

“But… I don’t…” Ren’s voice was frail, and Tajima gave him an easy shrug.

“Wait a little while, see if anything comes to you. You don’t have to pick one right now, just think about it.” As a blood orange planet slowly crept in to view over the edge of the window, the pilot tossed Ren’s shirt back to him and accelerated towards the atmosphere. Ren frowned as he tugged the armor off and the shirt back over his head.

“Where? Are we going?” 

“Back to Jakku, of course. I left something important, so we’ve gotta go get it.” Ren’s whine of distress was overcome by the roar of the atmosphere as it engulfed the small Tai Fighter.

**Author's Note:**

> So I love both Abemiha and Tajimiha, but my heart told me Tajimiha for this one. I might consider writing some Abemiha for this universe in the future, we'll see!! I very much hope you enjoyed reading this!!


End file.
